Dielectric etch process reducing striations and maintaining critical dimensions

ABSTRACT

An oxide etching recipe including a heavy hydrogen-free fluorocarbon having F/C ratios less than 2 such as C 4 F 6  or C 5 F 8 , an oxygen-containing gas such as O 2 , CO or CO 2 , a lighter fluorocarbon or hydrofluorocarbon, and a noble diluent gas such as Ar or Xe. The amounts of the first three gases are chosen such that the ratio (F—H)/(C—O) is at least 1.5 and no more than 2. Alternatively, the gas mixture may include the heavy fluorocarbon, carbon tetrafluoride, and the diluent with the ratio of the first two chosen such the ratio F/C is between 1.5 and 2.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to plasma etching of materials. In particular, the invention relates to etching dielectric layers in semiconductor integrated circuits.

BACKGROUND ART

The continuing commercialization of ever more complex semiconductor integrated circuits has required further developments in the fabrication processes used in making them. One of the most demanding areas involves the etching of holes into dielectric layers. The problems arise from the need to etch very narrow but deep holes into the dielectric materials. Although the most common dielectrics are silicon dioxide and related silicate materials used as inter-level dielectric layers to electrically isolate multiple layers of wiring from each other, dielectrics are commonly used for other purposes.

One such other application is the use of undoped spin-on glass (USG) as a hard mask in etching a very deep trench into polysilicon for the formation of trench capacitors for dynamic random addressable memory (DRAM). As illustrated in the sectioned isometric view of FIG. 1, a substrate includes a relatively thick layer 10 of polysilicon. A trench capacitor is to be formed in the polysilicon layer 10 using the polysilicon as one electrode. A thin stop layer 12 of silicon nitride overlies the polysilicon layer 10, and a hard mask layer 14 of undoped spin-on glass (USG) overlies the stop layer 12. USG is a silicate glass that is spun onto the wafer and dried, just as is spin-on glass (SOG) and in particular borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG), commonly used as an inter-level dielectric. However, BPSG is heavily doped while USG is undoped silicate glass. A photoresist layer 16 is spun onto the top of the USG layer 14, hardened, and photographically patterned to have a mask aperture 18 in the lateral form of the desired trench.

This structure is then subjected to a multi-step etching process that, as illustrated in the partially sectioned isometric view of FIG. 2, first etches through the USG layer 14 and the nitride stop layer 12 and then into the polysilicon layer 10 to produce a deep narrow trench 20 in the polysilicon layer 10. The trench may be 30 μm deep. Trench widths are decreasing to about 0.31 μm or less. Because of its extreme depth relative to the photoresist thickness, the USG layer 14 is used as a hard mask to mask the polysilicon etching after the photoresist has been consumed. The polysilicon etch is chosen to be selective to USG. A USG thickness of 1.2 μm is typical for a trench hard mask, a thickness approximately equal to typical inter-level dielectric thicknesses so that the etching processes developed here for the trench hard mask are applicable to via holes through a inter-level dielectric as well as to other applications. The nitride layer 12 is used both as an etch stop for the oxide etching and as an anti-reflective coating in optically imaging the narrow trench into the photoresist layer 16. The etching process thus requires three separate etching substeps, usually using three different etching gases in one plasma etching chamber: a mask open step for etching the trench shape into the USG oxide layer 14; a nitride open for removing the nitride stop layer 12 at the bottom of the oxide trench; and the polysilicon etch.

After the trench 20 has been formed in the polysilicon 10, a thin conformal dielectric layer is deposited over the sides and bottom of the trench, and then a metal is filled into the remaining volume of the trench. A large-area trench capacitor is formed across the thin dielectric layer separating the polysilicon and the metal in the trench, the two electrodes of the capacitor.

This invention is primarily directed to etching of an oxide, which in the specifically described embodiment is the mask open step, which has strong similarities to etching via and contact holes through inter-level oxides for inter-level wiring. The etch must be relatively deep and create a narrow, vertical hole while stopping on a non-oxide layer. Such oxide etching is typically performed in a plasma etch reactor using a fluorocarbon etching gas and an argon diluent with strong substrate biasing to accelerate argon ions to the wafer in a process referred to as reactive ion etching (RIE). The fluorocarbon deposits a polymer on the oxide sidewalls and bottom of the developing oxide hole. The energetic argon ions activate a reaction at the hole bottom that differentiates underlying oxide and non-oxide. The effect is that the bottom oxide is etched, but the non-oxide is not. Fluorocarbon-based oxide etching can achieve very high selectivity to underlying nitride.

The conventional fluorine-based oxide etching, however, presents increasing problems as the hole widths are being further reduced. Excessive polymerization in the oxide hole being etched will cause the polymer to bridge the hole and to prevent any further etching, an effect called etch stop. Obviously, etch stop must be avoided.

Another requirement is that during the oxide etching some photoresist must remain. Otherwise, the top of the USG layer will also be etched. Because of the geometry, exposed comers of the photoresist are most prone to etching, resulting in the formation of facets at the lip of the photoresist aperture. If the photoresist facets reach the underlying oxide, the mask aperture starts to widen, and the critical dimension (CD) is lost. The photoresist thickness cannot be freely increased because a thicker photoresist degrades the photographic resolution in patterning the photoresist. As a result, high photoresist selectivity, particularly at the facets, is also required during the oxide etch.

Yet another problem arising in oxide etching of narrow features is that striations are often observed to occur on the oxide sidewalls. The striations are vertically extending irregularities that result in a rough sidewall. Since the oxide layer is being used as a hard mask in the polysilicon etching, such irregularities are transferred to the underlying polysilicon. Striations in the polysilicon make it difficult to fill metal into the trench and also introduce reliability and performance problems with the irregularly shaped capacitors. It is now generally believed that the oxide striations somehow originate in the sidewalls of the photographically patterned hole in the photoresist and propagate downwardly into the oxide sidewalls.

For these reasons, it is desirable to develop an oxide etching process that is selective to photoresist, does not produce etch stop, and reduces the occurrence of striations.

There has been much recent development in the use of more complex fluorocarbons in etching high aspect-ratio holes in oxide. Octafluorocyclobutane (C₄F₈) has been favored for several years in advanced applications, but its process window between etch stop and unacceptably low selectivity is now considered to be too narrow. Wang et al. have suggested several 3-carbon fluorocarbons in U.S. Pat. application, Ser. No. 09/259,536, filed Mar. 1, 1999. Hung et al. have demonstrated superior performance with hexafluorobutadiene (C₄F₆) in U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 09/440,810, filed Nov. 15, 1999. Others have promoted the use of octafluoropentadiene (C₅F₈). At least the Wang and Hung work have further emphasized a large fraction of argon or xenon diluent. The better ones of these fluorocarbons have been characterized as being free of hydrogen and having a ratio of fluorine to carbon atoms

However, it is not clear that using only the heavier hydrogen-free fluorocarbons will be sufficient for even more advanced applications. Etch stop continues to be problem if the chemistry is too polymerizing. Photoresist selectivity is becoming an increasingly difficult problem as its thickness decreases with decreasing feature sizes. The sensitivity to striations with less conventional fluorocarbons has not been well explored. It is now generally accepted that the addition of oxygen, particularly in the form of carbon monoxide (CO), will reduce etch stop without too great a decrease in selectivity. Fluorocarbons with high F/C ratios are strong etchers but provide poor selectivity. The use of polymerizing hydrofluoromethanes, particularly difluoromethane (CH₂F₂), will aid selectivity but at the risk of etch stop.

Heretofore, finding an oxide etch recipe satisfying the various requirements over a reasonable process window entailed a hit or miss methodology of trying many combinations of gases with many ratios of their components. It is greatly desired that the methodology be systematized to at least reduce the number of possibilities.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An oxide etching process in which a plasma of an etching gas is applied to the oxide layer through a photoresist mask to etch a hole into the oxide. The etching gas contains active components and a diluent gas such as argon. The active components include a hydrogen-free fluorocarbon having an F/C ratio of less than 2, preferably C₄F₆ or C₅F₈, and a hydrofluorocarbon or hydrogen-free fluorocarbon with an F/C ratio greater than 2. Carbon tetrafluoride (CF₄) provides improved control. The active components optionally include CO or O₂. The relative flows of the active components are chosen such that the ratio (F—H)/(C—O) is between 1.5 and 2, where F, H, C, and O are the total atomic concentrations of fluorine, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen atoms respectively in the etching gas.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a sectioned isometric view of a vertical structure to be formed into a trench capacitor prior to etching.

FIG. 2 is a sectioned isometric view of the structure of FIG. 1 after the etching process.

FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating the relative polymerizing and etching flows for a number of inventive and comparative oxide etch recipes.

FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating the dependence the severity of striations upon a universal ratio of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating the dependence of the loss of critical dimension upon the universal ratio.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

We believe that a universal relationship may be stated linking the amount of fluorine, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in an etching mixture that produces an oxide etch not subject to etch stop and less prone to striations. This relationship is based on the understanding that fluorine is the etching species but hydrogen scavenges fluorine by forming HF. Carbon forms the protective polymer, and oxygen attacks the polymer to prevent etch stop. Excessively strong etching is likely to produce striations. Strong polymerization reduces striations, but excessive polymerization results in etch stop. Within the regime required for deep oxide hole etching without excessive striations, a universal parameter such as universal ratio R defined by R=(F—H)/(C—O) can be used to predict a useful regime. The variable F, H, C, and O are the atomic concentrations of fluorine, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen atoms respectively in the etching gas mixture. However, since a ratio of these quantities is being used, the absolute flow, the pressure, and the residence time are not important, and Boyle's law may be used to relate molar concentrations of gases with standard volumetric flows. As a result, volumetric flows of the respective gases in arbitrary units may be used if the flows are multiplied by the number of respective atoms in the molecules of the flows. For example, 10 sccm of CH₂F₂ is calculated as 10 units of C, 20 units of H, and 20 units of F. If two constituent gases contain the same atomic species, the units resulting from the two gases are summed.

A number of oxide etching recipes were tested in the IPS oxide etch reactor, which is available from Applied Materials, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. The IPS reactor is a high-density plasma (HDP) reactor in which RF power is coupled by inductive coils over the roof of the reactor as the primary source of plasma power. A separate RF power supply connected to the pedestal electrode controls the DC self-bias on the wafer and hence the energy of ions accelerated across the plasma sheath toward the wafer. The IPS has a silicon chamber wall effective for both cleanliness and scavenging of fluorine if desired. The temperature of the silicon roof may be controlled. Additionally a silicon ring surrounds the wafer and is typically maintained hot as the primary control for scavenging fluorine from the etching plasma.

The gas flows of the various recipes are listed in TABLE 1 in units of sccm.

TABLE 1 Recipe CF₄ CHF₃ CH₂F₂ C₂F₆ C₄F₆ C₄F₈ Ar CO 1 19 600 2 13 13 600 3 10 16 600 4 12 19 600 5 16 600 6 50 20 450 7 20  7 300 10 8 40 10  8 300 9 50 15 300 10  30 15  8 600

The chamber pressures were 25 milliTorr for recipes #1 through #5 and 60 milliTorr for the others. Other processing parameters for these recipes are silicon roof temperatures in range of 135 to 180° C., silicon ring temperatures of 270 to 300° C., pedestal temperatures of between −10 to +5° C., RF coil source power of between 1225 to 1570 W except 2700 W for #6, and RF bias power of between 850 to 1000 W except 1400 W for #6.

TABLE 2 Recipe $\frac{F{—H}}{C{—O}}$

Striations d_(CD) (nm) Etch Rate (nm/min) S_(PR) 1 1.50 1.0 35.2 382.5 4.5 2 2.00 1.5 11.4 457.5 3.5 3 1.84 0.0 19.9 461.3 4.0 4 1.84 1.0 22.3 5 2.00 1.5 15.8 567.7 4.1 6 2.00 3.0 32.3 1135 5.9 7 2.83 2.0 57 820 3.5 8 2.73 2.0 7.5 1000 3.8 9 2.38 3.0 39.0 950 5.0 10 2.33 2.0 62.5 925 4.2

The values for striations were subjectively determined from viewing scanning electron micrographs (SEMs) on a scale where 0 is best and 5 is worst. Worsening striation behavior is exhibited by either an increasing number of striations or an increase in their size either laterally or longitudinally. The striation results are plotted in FIG. 2 as a function of the universal ratio R. It is seen that the best striation behavior, that is, a striation value of 2 or better (less), is obtained for R equal to and preferably less than 2. It is admitted that careful optimization for oxide etch recipes would in most cases allow acceptable striations for R>2. However, such careful optimization is generally inconsistent with a wide process recipe. That is, unless satisfactory striation behavior is not nearly immediately obtained in the evaluation tests, it is unlikely that a similar recipe can be found having a wide process window and producing few striations.

Octafluorocyclobutane (C₄F₈), for which R=2, is widely used as a sole etch gas in combination with argon. But such a recipe is generally felt to be excessively prone to striations. Accordingly, the value of R=2 should be avoided for a universal relationship.

The values for the loss of critical dimension ΔCD were determined from a measuring the difference between the hole width at the top of the hole and at the bottom after completion of oxide etching, where a positive value of ΔCD is a deleterious loss of CD. The CD results are plotted in FIG. 3 as a function of the universal ratio R. The results are not so clear cut, but the best values of ΔCD less than 20 nm are obtained for R equal to or less than 2.0 and the worst values are obtained for R greater than 2.0.

No extensive tests were run to determine the occurrence of etch stop. However, based on experience with simpler chemistries, it is believed that a value for R of less than 1.5 increases the probability of etch stop.

The data points of TABLE 2 are also plotted on the graph of FIG. 4 showing the respective values of F—H and C—O for all the recipes. This plot shows proportionality lines 30, 32, 32, 34 for values of the universal ratio R respectively of 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3. Generally, striations are excessive for R≧2, and etch stop is more likely to occur for R<1.5. Accordingly, a preferred band for oxide etching gas mixtures occurs for 1.5<R<2.

The above explanation is based mostly upon striation control. The deeper oxide etching and selectivity have not been as thoroughly included. Recent developments in etching deep holes in oxide having emphasized the hydrogen-free fluorocarbons having an F/C ratio of less than 2, such as C₄F₆ and octafluoropentadiene (C₅F₈). A great amount of control over the F/C ratio while still using these preferred main etching gases is to adjust a mixture of such fluorocarbons and carbon tetrafluoride (CF₄).

Although the above recipes have been developed for the IPS chamber, the invention can also be applied to more convention capacitively coupled reactors, such as the M×P reactor and its recent improvement the superE, available from Applied Materials. An example of an optimized recipe developed there is summarized in TABLE 3.

TABLE 3 C₄F₆ Flow (sccm) 30 O_(2 Flow (sccm)) 15 CO Flow (sccm) 120 Ar Flow (sccm) 140 Bias Power (W) 2300 Magnetic Field (G) 50 Pressure (mTorr) 30 Cathode Temp. (° C.) −20 Time (s) 240

In this recipe the universal ratio R is equal to 2.0.

Although the invention is particularly useful for a deep trench etch, it can also be applied to other oxide etch applications, particularly those requiring good selectivity to photoresist, reduced photoresist striations, and no etch stop.

The invention thus allows an oxide etching recipe to be quickly optimized by setting bounds on the compositional ranges that can be advantageously used. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of plasma etching an oxide layer to have striations below a first selected value and to have a loss of critical dimensions below a second selected value, comprising the steps of: flowing a gas mixture into a plasma reactor containing a substrate containing an oxide layer overlaid by a patterned photoresist layer, said gas mixture comprising a non-zero first amount of a first gas consisting of hexafluorobutadiene, a non-zero second amount of a second gas selected from the group of fluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons other than hydrogen-free flurocarbons having F/C ratios of less than two, a third amount of a third gas selected from the group of oxygen-containing compounds consisting of oxygen and carbon monoxide, and a non-zero fourth amount of a noble diluent gas, said first, second, and third amounts being chosen so that a compositional ratio of (F—H)/(C—O) is at least 1.5 and no more than 2.0, wherein F, H, C, and O are respective atomic amounts of fluorine, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen in said first, second, and third amounts of said first, second, and third gases respectively; and exciting said gas mixture into a plasma to etch said oxide layer to have striations below said first selected value and to have said loss of critical dimensions below said second selected value.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said compositional ratio is less than 2.0.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said second gas has an F/C ratio of greater than
 2. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein said second gas is a hydrogen-free fluorocarbon.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein said second gas consists of CF₄.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said oxygen-containing compound is CO.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said oxygen-containing compound is O₂.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein said third amount is a non-zero amount.
 9. A method plasma etching an oxide layer to have striations below a first selected value and to have a loss of critical dimensions below a second selected value, comprising the steps of: flowing a gas mixture into a plasma reactor containing a substrate containing an oxide layer overlaid by a patterned photoresist layer, said gas mixture comprising a non-zero first amount of a first gas selected from the group of hydrogen-free fluorocarbons consisting of C₄F₆ and C₅F₈, a non-zero second amount of CF₄, and a non-zero third amount of a noble diluent gas, said first and second amounts being chosen so that a ratio of F/C is at least 1.5 and is less than 2.0, wherein F and C are respective atomic amounts of fluorine and carbon in said first and second amounts of said fist and second gases respectively; and exciting said gas mixture into a plasma to etch said oxide layer to have striations below said first selected value and to have said loss of critical dimensions below said second selected value.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said hydrogen-free fluorocarbon is C₅F₈.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said hydrogen-free fluorocarbon is C₄F₆.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein said exciting step includes only capacitively coupling RF energy into said reactor.
 13. The method of claim 9, wherein said exciting step includes inductively coupling RF energy into said reactor.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein said oxide layer has a thickness of at least 1.0 μm and said photoresist layer is patterned to form a trench in the oxide layer.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein said exciting step etches through said oxide layer and further comprising subsequently using said oxide layer as a mask in etching polysilicon underlying said oxide layer.
 16. A method of plasma etching an oxide layer, comprising the steps of: flowing a gas mixture into a plasma reactor containing a substrate containing an oxide layer overlaid by a patterned photoresist layer, said gas mixture comprising a non-zero fist amount of a fluorocarbon gas consisting of C₄F₆, a non-zero second amount of oxygen gas, a non-zero third amount of carbon monoxide gas, and a non-zero fourth amount of a noble diluent gas, wherein said first, second, and third amounts are chosen so that a ratio of (F—H)/(C—O) is at least 1.5 and no more than 2.0, wherein F, H, C, and O are respective atomic amounts of fluorine, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen in said first, second, and third amounts of said fluorocarbon gas, said oxygen gas, and said carbon monoxide gas; and exciting said gas mixture into a plasma to etch said oxide layer. 